In a constantly shifting marketplace, tech brands cannot afford to take their customers for granted. Building loyalty and improving retention rates is vital - and your content can help.
Tech is a competitive industry, where digital disruptors flourish and unpredictability is a built-in condition. In these conditions, it’s hard for tech brands to rely on customer loyalty when competitors are offering fresh alternatives and innovative answers.
But figures show that there’s significant value in client retention and customer loyalty:
- A 5% rise in customer retention can boost profitability by 75%
- 80% of future profit can come from a fifth of loyal customers
- Four out of five companies say that retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new prospects
- Loyal customers spend 33% more than new prospects.
It’s worth noting that Apple scores above 90% for customer loyalty, with an 85% rating for customer satisfaction.
Client retention is a challenge, but it repays investment considerably. There are various ways in which you can use content to improve customer satisfaction and client retention.
Streamline your onboarding
The prospect’s experience of becoming a customer can influence the rest of their relationship with you.
People want and expect customer personalisation. If you’ve already created a content strategy based on connecting with prospects in ways that make them feel you understand them, then you need to build on this.
Once they’ve signed up for your products or services, you need to give them the information they need to maximise the return on their investment.
This type of content can be:
- How-to guides and videos
- User manuals
- Troubleshooting advice.
Make sure you’re giving your new customer enough regular information to make them feel confident and reassured about choosing to buy from you.
Again, the personalisation aspect of this can be the thing that makes the difference between good and exceptional content. It's not just about the content, but also how you deliver it.
Consider the channels you can use for your content to make a direct connection with your customers.
Add educational value with your content
The key to content marketing is not to sell directly but to support, educate and entertain. Why would you then reduce or withdraw these elements once you’ve converted your prospect?
Retaining your clients using content means keeping the communication channels open and delivering content that they will find useful.
Offer them free content that will continue to educate them about your product or service, or the markets it applies to.
Help them understand how it all fits into the wider context of a particular industry, and how they can maximise the benefits of what you’ve given them.
Prioritise convenience and use informative content to make your customers’ lives easier. If, for example, they’re subscribing to your app, are there features on it that you can highlight for addressing specific tasks?
There are different ways of providing this educational content:
- Newsletters
- Ebooks
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Webinars.
Use affirmation as a retention tool
You don’t want your customers to suffer buyer’s remorse. Therefore, another key purpose for your content is affirmation.
Reassure your customers that they’ve made the right choice.
Provide plenty of follow-up content that reinforces the benefits of your product or service and lets them know that you'll keep them up to date with the latest developments such as refinements or improvements.
Share positive reviews from other users and case studies that demonstrate the applications and advantages your customers have enjoyed.
Do, however, tread carefully when using content to tell your existing customers about any industry awards you’ve won. Keep the focus on your customers, and how their satisfaction has contributed to your success.
You don’t want your content to come across as self-serving.
Make your customers feel special
While you want to appear helpful to your customers, you can also make them feel special.
Offer them exclusive content that they can only access once they've become a confirmed customer. This could be access to private user groups or online libraries of useful content.
One way of building loyalty is to create a community for your customers, where they can exchange information and tips. Providing an online forum for customers to get advice and post tips is the perfect vehicle for this.
Create a sense of anticipation
Once you’ve secured your customer, you need to keep them onside and interested. You can do this by providing consistent, high quality, relevant and informative content, and you can use it to build a sense of anticipation.
The more useful and entertaining your customers find your content, the more they’ll look forward to getting more of it.
Make sure your client retention content works as hard as your original marketing content to keep your customers happy.
There is quite a lot of overlap between the content that attracts prospects and the content that helps retain them as clients. The same energy that you put into winning business should apply to how you keep it.
Additional benefits of customer retention content
If your content makes your existing customers feel satisfied, then they’re more likely to act as advocates for your business.
This is why this type of activity is still content marketing. By engaging with your existing customers positively, they become a powerful marketing tool on your behalf.
The more important the buying decision is to a prospect, the more likely they are to seek out customer recommendations.
Content and the customer experience
A vital aspect of successful content is empathy. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes to understand their needs, pain points and desires.
Empathy doesn’t end once they have signed up as customers. If anything, it’s even more important, because now you must deliver on your promises that attracted them in the first place.
When it comes to tech businesses, the most successful brands provide high levels of user information and support, even if they’ve created products that are self-evidently beneficial to their users.
Don’t take your customers for granted. Keep them satisfied with well-constructed content.
Want to know how to use content to retain your clients? Talk to the Prize Content team today.
